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Donnerstag, 1. März 2018

Easter Bunny Potholder

The nice thing about the changing seasons and holidays is that you can always have new decorations :) - and since Easter is approaching, I decided to knit a potholder with an easter bunny theme. This started to get me a bit towards an Easter mood - plus it gave me a good excuse to start buying chocolate eggs ... only for the photos, of course ;)
Similar to other potholder / washcloth patterns that I have published here (e.g. I ♥ Intarsia Washcloth, Tannenbäumchen Potholder), it is a combination of short rows and intarsia, which leads to a piece that looks good from both sides.

Throughout the pattern, the following notation is used: C1 (k4), C2 (k10, w+t, k10), C1 (k to end) means, knit 4 stitches in C1, change to C2 and knit 10 sts, do a wrap and turn, knit 10 stitches and then change back to C1 and k to end. I.e. color is indicated before the knitting instructions for that yarn and the knitting instructions for that yarn are given in brackets after the color.

Note: in some rows the wrap has to be made just at the color change in the row below, e.g. Ridge B11 where you knit 11 sts in C1 and the 12 stitch that is to be wrapped was knitted in C2. In this case, it's advisable to change the color (as if to knit the next stitch in the new color), wrap and turn in the new color, and then to change back. This gives nicer color edges.

Grafting in Garter Stitch: A technique to get an invisible (knitted) seam - this technique is shown in this YouTube Video by knittinghelp.com.

Weaving in (ends) while knitting: as shown in this YouTube video by So, I make stuff. This technique is used here to carry yarn of another color to point further along in your row while avoiding a long float.

Weaving in yarn while carrying it back: Draw a long loop of C2 (white in the illustration) to the point closer to the beginning of the rowwhere you want to knit it (picture 1). This gives you a really long float. Knit the first stitch (picture 2). Before knitting the second stitch, catch the float by put the left hand needle under the float (picutre 3) and then knit the stitch with your working yarn as usual. If you catch the float every second stitch, the WS will look as shown in picture 4. (This is a bit like catching floats in stranded knitting as shown in this YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter.)The last two techniques (this and weaving in (ends) while knitting) will are used to avoid a long float that runs parallel to your knitting - and to avoid cutting your yarn.

Click to enlarge

Construction

This potholder is knitted in 5 parts. It starts with a provisional CO. Then each row is a stitch shorter than the last one, One part ends, when the row is only 1 stitch (plus 1 w+t) long - then the next part begins and each row is one stitch longer than the last one until all stitches are knitted and we've sucessfully knitted around a corner. Then the row length is getting shorter again for the next corner.

After knitting around four corners and the two sides (CO and last row) are grafted in garter stitch.

Take out your scrap yarn of the provisional cast on and put the live stitches on a knitting needle. Cut your yarns but leave tails long enough for grafting.
Graft in garter stitch: 12sts in C1 and 8 sts in C2.

If there is still a hole in the middle, use the C2 end to sew it closed.
Weave in ends.

Chart
The chart below shows one half of the potholder. The numbers indicate the number of stitches per color of each ridge (including the slipped stitch at the beginning of each row). The brown number gives the stitches in C2 and the black number the stitches in C1.
The grey highlighted rows are added for readability only.